Industrial production in November was almost 15 per cent ahead of the same month in 2004, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
This substantial increase was helped in particular by an improvement in the so-called modern sector, where output from the high technology and chemical sectors increased by 19.1 per cent year-on-year. The more traditional sectors saw an annual increase of 5.6 per cent in November 2005 from November 2004, according to the figures released yesterday.
On a three-month moving average basis, industrial production expanded by 5.8 per cent year-on-year, virtually unchanged from the previous month, according to Goodbody Stockbrokers.
In a note, economists Dermot O'Leary and Philip O'Sullivan state that while the growth rate in the coming months may be flattered by last year's weak comparative figures, the buoyancy of the Irish economy, combined with the positive outlook for global growth in 2006, is likely to underpin demand for Ireland's industrial output this year. "For this reason we are optimistic about the prospects for further progress in 2006," they said.
The CSO figures show a small 1.5 per cent decline in seasonally adjusted industrial production volumes for the manufacturing industries in the three months to November from the preceding three-month period. Across all industries production volumes dropped by 1.2 per cent for the same period, the figures showed.
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted turnover for manufacturing industries was 3.6 per cent higher in the three months to November from the prior three-month period. On an annual basis, turnover in November was 11.1 per cent higher than it was in November 2004.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)